Destruction
by acsbabyangelgirl
Summary: The team deals with the aftermath of Sara's abduction and the Miniature Killer cases.
1. Chapter 1

**Destruction**

DISCLAIMER: I do not own CSI or anything affiliated with the show. Based off the Miniature Killer and the episode _Living Doll_.

A/n: This story begins at the end of _Living Doll_… sort of my idea of where they'll go from there based upon the fact that I love Sara and I don't want her to be killed off.

Sara dug her fingers into the wet sand. It was freezing cold, but she had to keep moving as much as possible; she had to keep herself awake and alive for as long as she could. Sara couldn't give up. She knew that she was hurt, badly. Her legs were pinned under something, but she could still move one of her arms. The other was pinned beneath her body. She tried to move it, but the weight of the car prevented her from lifting her body enough to move it at all. Pulling her hand under the car, Sara felt around in her vest for her cell phone. The fact that it was missing worried her. Everything hurt so badly, and without her cell phone she couldn't do anything to help herself.

Sara closed her eyes and focused on just trying to breathe as she thought back, trying to remember how she had ended up here. The last thing she could remember was loading her kit into the back of her car, and then hearing someone calling her name. She'd turned around and come face to face with one of the members of the cleaning crew. Beyond that, things were rather fuzzy. She couldn't remember how she had ended up underneath a car; she only knew that it was a car because of the cold metal against her back. It was too cold, but every time she shivered, blinding pain shot through her body. It was almost all she could do to keep from blacking out. Sara resignedly pulled her free arm closer to her body, trying to keep warm with her own body heat. It was the best she could do. She simply had to wait and see what would happen. "Don't be too late," she whispered, closing her eyes in an attempt to conserve as much energy as possible.

LINELINELINELINE

"It's too cold out there," Nick said. He and Warrick were standing at a window, looking out at the rain that poured down.

"I just hope that she's out of the rain. The last thing she'll need is hypothermia, especially after everything else," Warrick replied. He sighed. "If…"

"She's still alive. We work as if she's alive until we have reason to believe otherwise," Nick said. He shook his head and started back to the lab. "We have to find her. Soon."

"What are you going to do?" Warrick asked.

"I'm going back over those old case files. And all the drawings Sofia found in Natalie's apartment. There's got to be something there," Nick replied. Warrick followed him, knowing that it would take both of them to get through everything they had.

LINELINELINELINE

Catherine looked down at the table in front of her. It appeared that Natalie had been in a hurry; she hadn't cleaned up the table and Catherine could still see the remains of the latest model. Sand was scattered all over the tabletop; a foam brush, still full of glue, was stuck to the table. There were a lot of tools lying around that Catherine didn't recognize, along with what appeared to be a doll-sized molded head. She picked it up with a gloved hand and examined it more closely. It had been cut off of the doll's body, and obviously replaced with a different head. Catherine just shook her head and bagged the piece of evidence.

"This is sick," she heard Sofia whisper. Catherine turned around and saw the detective pulling some drawings out of a drawer. "She's drawn every crime scene, exactly the way it ended up looking. Even down to the way the blood pooled. Perfect on all the details." Catherine walked over to look at the drawings Sofia was examining.

"How on earth did Natalie do this? The details are so exact," Catherine replied.

"I've heard of this before. It's called eidetic memory… but you're supposed to lose it in childhood. And the detailed memories don't last long enough to do something like this," Sofia replied. She shook her head. "If these drawings were done from memory, she could very well be the first person to ever show proof of a true photographic memory."

"I wouldn't doubt it… Natalie's already one in a million," Catherine muttered. She looked up, a bit confused. "It isn't possible… she wouldn't have had time to do all of the drawings of the car if she did them after the murders. But they're too perfect to have been done beforehand. There's no good way for her to have done these drawings." She sighed. "There's something very wrong about all of this… the immaculate crime scenes, the detailed models and drawings. I just can't place my finger on why it bothers me so much."

LINELINELINELINE

Sara opened her eyes and tried to see what was going on around her, but it was still too dark to know where she was. Before she knew what was happening, she was coughing. The pain was so intense, Sara could barely breathe. She fought to catch her breath as tears came to her eyes. After several minutes, she finally felt her breathing ease. The pain was yet another warning signal; Sara began to mentally catalogue any injuries she could determine without being able to move. Already she knew that she had a couple of broken ribs. She tried to move her toes; the pain shooting up her right leg gave her the information she needed, and she added a broken leg to the list of probable injuries. Not good, but she continued to remind herself that it could be a lot worse; she could have been unable to feel her legs at all.

Sara closed her eyes again and tried to get her mind off of the pain she was in. While it was helpful to know what the problem was, focusing solely on the pain certainly wasn't helping her frame of mind any. All it really did was keep her mind away from the bigger problem – surviving.

LINELINELINELINE

Grissom watched the hand in the model as it began to slow in its movement. This was bad; if the hand stopped moving, that meant that the chances of finding Sara alive pretty much went down the drain. Natalie was not only a gifted artist; she could also calculate to within about an hour how long it would take for someone to die. Of course, this all hinged on whether or not Natalie had gotten to Sara at the exact moment she had planned. If Sara had been behind for some reason, then there was a good chance that she was still alive out there. But not for very long.

"Grissom?" Greg asked, opening the supervisor's office door. Gil looked up and waited to hear what Greg had to say. "I found the towing company that picked up the Mustang from impound. It was rented to an Ernie Dell yesterday. I tried to tell the guy that was impossible, but he says he has a copy of the driver's license to prove it. He faxed it over, but the picture isn't of our Ernie Dell."

"Who's in the picture?" Grissom asked, confused.

"Natalie. She faked the ID… changed a few dates, the gender and the picture. It's a really convincing fake, though. If I didn't know it was a phony, I wouldn't believe it. I ran the driver's license number, and she didn't change it at all," Greg replied. He held the report out to his boss, in case the man wanted to see what he'd found for himself.

"Call Brass. We need to talk to the person who rented Natalie that truck." Greg nodded and walked out of the office to follow Grissom's instructions. Grissom looked back down at the model, willing the miniature hand to keep moving, just for a little while longer. Just until they could figure out where the car was located and get to Sara.

LINELINELINELINE

Catherine dug through the small trashcan under Natalie's worktable, curious as to what she might find. She pulled a couple of photographs out of the bottom and looked at them for a moment, before looking up at Sofia. "You need to see these," she said, motioning for the detective to come look at the pictures. Sofia looked at them for a few moments, somewhat confused.

"What are these? Why would Natalie take pictures like this?" Sofia asked. Catherine shrugged.

"Not the type of thing you'd find in a memory book, that's for sure. Why on Earth would she want pictures of Ernie Dell's dead body?" Catherine looked through more of the photographs, before stopping at one that looked familiar. There wasn't really any good reason for Natalie having taken the photo; it was a rather nondescript patch of desert. Except for the fence… Catherine recognized that particular feature of the landscape. "I know this place… I used to live out there."

"Why would Natalie have a picture of that place?" Sofia asked. Catherine shook her head, utterly confused.

"I haven't lived there in years… not since I started working in the lab. She couldn't have known that," Catherine replied. She pulled the photo out of the pile and moved to the next one, swallowing hard. It was a picture of Sara and Grissom kissing, outside her apartment. She turned to glance at Sofia, whose eyes had grown wide.

"Did you know about that?" Sofia asked. Catherine shook her head.

"Not until tonight. I'm starting to think that there's a lot we don't know about Sara and Grissom's relationship."

LINELINELINELINE

"I talked to someone who works at the rental place where Natalie got the tow truck, and she hasn't returned it yet. The guy who rented it to her went missing a few days ago," Brass said, walking into Grissom's office. Grissom looked up at the detective expectantly. "He was stealing money from the rental company long before he ran into Natalie. Apparently he realized his mistake in renting her that truck and skipped town before anyone could find out about what he'd done."

"And before we could find out what Natalie did to get him to rent the truck to her," Grissom replied. He closed his eyes and sighed. "Every lead we have seems to be going down the drain. We can't even prove that she's the one who kidnapped Sara at this point. The only thing that conclusively connects her to any of it is what the receptionist saw and the one fingerprint on the last doll." He shook his head.

"It's tough," Brass replied. "Natalie's brilliant, somewhere behind that twisted mind. Problem is figuring out just how much she understands that what she did was wrong." Grissom looked up at him on that one.

"She knows, Jim. This isn't the effect of a psychotic episode any longer. This is her way of getting revenge for the death of Ernie Dell. She blames us for that… blames me, anyway. In her mind, justice hasn't been served until I'm just as miserable as she is," Grissom told him. He closed his eyes and sighed. "In her mind, I took away the only person she ever loved, so she has to do the same thing to me," Grissom added. Brass cleared his throat at that comment, and Grissom looked up. "She's going to hate me for telling everyone." He reached down into his desk drawer and pulled out a small box, tears in his eyes. "We have to find her, Jim. I never even got to give this to her," he said, opening the box to reveal a diamond ring.

"You'd better put that back in that drawer for safekeeping. We'll find her, Gil," Brass assured him. He pulled out his cell phone as it began ringing. Grissom listened as Brass spoke to Catherine on the phone for a moment. As soon as he hung up, Brass started towards the door. "Get your stuff… Catherine and Sofia found the car."

"They were supposed to be at Natalie's apartment," Grissom replied.

"I know… which is why I'm wondering what the hell they're doing out in the middle of the desert," Brass said, walking out quickly. Grissom followed him, grabbing a jacket off of the back of a chair as he went. Neither man noticed that the small hand on the miniature had stopped moving as they talked.


	2. Chapter 2

**Destruction**

DISCLAIMER: I do not own CSI or anything affiliated with the show. Based off the Miniature Killer and the episode _Living Doll_.

Sara opened her eyes as a small amount of light shone underneath the vehicle. She could hear car doors open and close, and she reached her free hand out so that someone would see that she was trapped. The rain was slowly beginning to slow down, although the ground was already soaked. Sara's fingers dug into the mud, trying to show whoever had found her that she was still alive. Trying to talk to them was out of the question. She didn't even want to begin to attempt that after the coughing spell had caused so much pain.

Catherine looked at the tangled mass of metal in front of her and shook her head. "Its no wonder the driver didn't survive this," she muttered as she began to walk around the vehicle. She was looking for some sign of life, something to tell her that this was really the vehicle from the model and not just another accident. Sofia was calling dispatch for help and to tell Brass that they'd found what could very well be the red Mustang.

A pale hand slowly moved out from underneath the vehicle, and Catherine rushed over to it, taking the hand in her own. "Sara, can you hear me?" she called. Sara squeezed her hand to let her know that she was still alive. The fact that Sara's hand was so cold scared Catherine, but she didn't want to let on. "Help's coming, sweetie. You just have to hang in there for a little bit longer," Catherine told her, squeezing her hand back. She glanced over at Sofia to see how much longer it was going to be before they would have help.

LINELINELINELINE

Nick, Warrick and Greg looked at the tangled mass of metal in front of them. Nick shuddered at the thought of Sara being trapped underneath what used to be a very nice Mustang. His own experience at being confined in a small space had brought about feelings of claustrophobia, but at least he had been able to move. Judging from the appearances of the vehicle and the position Sara had been in when it had been removed, they all knew that she hadn't been able to move anything but her right hand. It had to have been hell for her, something that none of them would ever wish upon even their worst enemies… not even on Ecklie.

"Why would she want to torture Sara like this?" Greg asked, voicing the thoughts that were going through all of their minds. Nick and Warrick just shrugged as they put on gloves and went to work, trying to salvage any evidence that might have survived the storm of the night before. They knew better than to expect much. Rain was a CSI's worst enemy at an outdoor crime scene; a storm could mean the difference between a conviction and an acquittal. Although they certainly had enough evidence to convict Natalie for most of the murders, they wanted to have as much as possible. She had hurt two of their own in the worst way possible, and no one wanted there to be any doubt as to who had committed such a heinous act.

After a few hours of working, Warrick's phone rang. He stepped out of the room to answer it, but Nick and Greg quit working anyway. They both knew that it was more than likely an update about Sara. When he walked back into the garage, they both stood up. "It's not good," was all he said. The three men began to quickly change out of the coats they were wearing to go to the hospital and wait with everyone else.

LINELINELINELINE

Sara opened her eyes as someone took her hand and smiled at Gil. "Hey," she whispered, smiling at him. She gently squeezed his hand, not sure if he had heard her.

"Hey," he replied. He smiled and reached up to touch brush some of her hair away from her face. "How are you feeling?"

"Like road kill," she replied, smiling a little wider. Grissom smiled at her and shook his head.

"How did I know you were going to say that?" he asked. He leaned over and kissed her forehead gently. "God, I was so afraid… I thought I was going to lose you."

"But you didn't. I'm right here," she replied. She squeezed his hand lightly. "I'm always going to be right here." Grissom shook his head and sighed.

"Don't promise me that… don't make a promise you can't be sure you'll keep," he told her. She shook her head.

"I'll keep it, Griss," she replied, closing her eyes. "That's one promise I fully intend to keep." Sara took a deep breath, wincing at the pain in her ribs. Grissom watched in concern but chose not to say anything. He didn't want to alarm her. "How bad is it?" she asked, once the pain had subsided. Gil took a deep breath before he attempted to answer her question.

"They didn't think you were going to make it," he replied. He closed his eyes before continuing. "It's been a long few days." Sara looked over at him, somewhat confused. "Sara, you've been out of it for about three days."

"Three days? What the hell happened?" Sara asked. She watched as Grissom gently began to stroke the back of her hand.

"They didn't think you were going to make it. None of us did," he began. "You were already septic by the time they got you into surgery. There wasn't a whole lot they could do."

"What surgery? I don't remember anyone saying anything about that," Sara replied. She tried to think back to what she remembered after she got to the hospital, but most of it was a blur. She turned back to Grissom, still confused. "What did they have to do?" Grissom looked down at the ground and then looked back up at her. He hated being the bearer of bad news. Seeing this, Sara tried to prepare herself for the worst. "Griss, just tell me."

"Sara, sweetie, they had to amputate your leg," he whispered. It was the only way he could think of to break the news. "There was a really bad cut on the back of your ankle… it was gangrenous. They tried everything, but they couldn't stop it from spreading." Sara stared blankly at the wall. In preparing herself for the worst, she hadn't even thought of that possibility. "Sara?" he asked. The fact that she wasn't responding scared him a little.

"Have they caught her yet?" Sara asked. "The girl who did this to me… have they caught her?" Sara asked. Grissom nodded.

"How much do you remember?" he asked her. She closed her eyes for a moment before responding.

"Is this between you and me, or is this for the case?" she asked.

"Just between the two of us," he replied.

"I don't remember enough. I could identify her, but that's about it. I was just putting my stuff in the car, and she called my name. I turned around and saw her, but I couldn't tell you what she did to me after that," Sara replied.

"We know that she hit you over the head and then drugged you. What we're still trying to figure out is how she got you under that car," Grissom replied. Sara tried to think back again, but she was still drawing a blank.

"That I can't tell you," she said. She closed her eyes. "I wish I could give you more."

"Sara, you know enough. That's all that matters. Don't worry about it, all right? You just concern yourself with getting better," he told her.

LINELINELINELINE

Grissom opened the door to his office and walked in, hoping to go unnoticed by anyone else. Lady Luck didn't seem to be on his side. "Hey Grissom, how is she?" Nick asked, walking in. Grissom turned to look at him and smiled.

"She's okay. I don't think it's really hit her yet," Grissom replied. He shook his head and sighed. "She didn't seem to hear me when I told her. Sara didn't even acknowledge that I'd said anything. She just started asking questions about the case." Nick just nodded.

"She's in denial. We just need to be there for her when she realizes what it all means," Nick replied. "She's going to be okay, Grissom. This is Sara we're talking about, after all." Grissom nodded.

"Thanks, Nick," he said. He picked up a couple of files from his desk. "Now, fill me in about this case you're working. What's happened since the last time I talked to you?"

LINELINELINELINE

Brass sighed as he stood outside the door of Sara's hospital room. Natalie Davis was still his case, even if her last victim had survived. That train of thought led him to remember that he still needed to interview Sara, to find out how much she could remember about what had happened to her. Her testimony was one of the links to Natalie as the Miniature Killer, provided she could recognize the woman. He sighed and knocked on the door. He hated doing this. This was Sara, after all. It wasn't like she was some stranger he would never see again once the case was over.

"Come in," a voice called. Brass opened the door and walked into the room, smiling at Sara as he entered. "Hey Jim," she said, smiling at him.

"Hey Sara. How are you feeling?" he asked, walking closer to the bed.

"Okay, I guess… I don't really know what else to say to that," Sara replied. She sighed. "I'm really getting sick of having to tell people that. Everyone asks that, and I don't know what to tell them." Brass just smiled.

"I understand. I won't ask again, okay?" he replied, smiling at her. She smiled back at him.

"Thanks. But that's not what you're here to talk to me about, is it?" she asked. He shook his head in reply. "You want to know how much I remember."

"Whatever you can tell me would help. We have a suspect in custody already, but I'm hoping that you can identify her," he replied. Sara nodded and tried to sit herself up in the bed. It wasn't easy, due to both the cast on her left wrist and her broken ribs. "Take it easy."

"Let's just get this over with," she replied, ignoring the nagging pain in her chest. Brass nodded.

"Okay. Let's start at the beginning," he said, pulling out a tape recorder. Sara watched as he turned it on and began recording their conversation. "How much do you remember about Monday night?" Brass asked. Sara thought for a moment and shook her head.

"Not a lot. I was on my way to process a crime scene. I remember opening my trunk to put in my kit, and then someone called my name from behind me," Sara replied. "The voice… it was female. She sounded…" Sara couldn't put it into words.

"Take your time."

"There was a woman standing there… blonde hair, pretty long. She wasn't that tall, five-five at the most. I'm pretty sure that she was from the cleaning crew, but I don't know her name," Sara replied. She shook her head. "I don't remember anything else. Everything goes blurry after that… I guess that's when she hit me." Brass nodded and reached to turn off the tape recorder. Then he pulled a photo array out of his notebook.

"Anyone look familiar?" he asked, handing her the page. She took it and began to look at the pictures, studying them carefully. Finally, she recognized the bottom left picture.

"It was her," Sara replied, pointing at the picture. "Bottom left." Brass looked at the array and nodded.

"You're sure?" he asked.

"Positive. I thought I'd seen her before. Around the lab," Sara replied.


	3. Chapter 3

**Destruction**

DISCLAIMER: I do not own CSI or anything affiliated with the show. Based off the Miniature Killer and the episode _Living Doll_.

Nick and Warrick looked up as Brass walked into the layout room. "We have a positive ID on Natalie. Sara picked her out pretty easily. Says she's sure it's her," Brass told them.

"That's good… makes it that much easier to get a conviction if this actually makes it to trial," Warrick said, looking around himself at all of the evidence they were going over.

"I almost think it would be better if it didn't. Sara's got enough to deal with without having to go to court," Nick replied, going back to the evidence they were looking over.

"Natalie isn't as unstable as she wants everyone to think. There wasn't anything to drive her over the edge this time. No bleach, which could be considered a catalyst for the other murders. The maid service didn't clean Sara's apartment. And Sara wasn't in the Dell home with Natalie, either. This last attempted murder is a statistical anomaly… most serial killers don't change their MO. This was planned, and not by an unstable mind," Brass replied. He looked down at the thick case files sitting on the table. "These are all of the miniature cases?" he asked.

"Every last one of them, with the exception of Sara… we're still waiting for some of the evidence to be processed. Everyone's backlogged this week," Nick replied. Brass raised an eyebrow.

"It's been almost four days… how are they that far behind?" he asked.

"Ecklie pulled Hodges and Mandy to do work on a case from day shift. He decided that since Natalie was in custody already, Sara's case wasn't a top priority. Greg's been in the DNA lab trying to help out when Ecklie isn't around, but he doesn't have enough time to do a lot," Warrick replied.

"I thought the sheriff made it clear that the Miniature Killer cases took priority over everything else. That includes Sara's case," Brass replied.

"Oh, he made it more than clear. Ecklie's just choosing to ignore it. My guess is he'll let the lab rats take the fall for it later, if the sheriff finds out," Nick said, shaking his head. "Grissom's done what he can. It isn't his lab. And technically, he's taken himself off the case. There isn't much we can do to speed things up." Brass sighed and looked down at the floor, shaking his head.

"What does Ecklie have against Sara? She does her job. The girl busts her ass in this place more than anyone else, yet he doesn't ever seem to give a shit. It's not right," Brass replied.

"She doesn't play politics. And she doesn't let Ecklie get away with it, either. She shoved it in his face a couple years back, got herself suspended. Truth hurts," Warrick replied.

LINELINELINELINE

"Grissom." Gil looked up from his desk at Ecklie.

"What can I do for you, Conrad?" he asked, taking off his glasses. He waited expectantly as Ecklie sat down in the chair across from him.

"I need to know what's going on between you and Sara Sidle." Grissom didn't show any surprise at the question. Instead, he chose to remain calm.

"What exactly do you mean?" he asked.

"You know what I mean, Gil. I know that something's going on, and I've known it for a while, but I want to hear it from you. Because whatever it is, I can't have it jeopardizing this lab's credibility," Ecklie replied.

"I don't see how my relationship with Sara would hurt the lab's credibility, Conrad. Especially not after what's been going on around here the past few days," Grissom replied. "You do realize that the under-sheriff is going to have your head over this case, don't you? You pulled two lab techs from my shift off a serial killer case to work on a murder/suicide. The sheriff made the Miniature Killer cases a priority for this lab, yet most of the evidence from the last scene has yet to be processed because you told the techs that other cases were more important."

"I'm trying to stay impartial, Gil."

"You're going to make us lose our case against Natalie Davis. I need Mandy and Hodges back to finish running the evidence from the last crime scene, and I need them back as of yesterday," Grissom replied.

"There's already enough evidence to get a conviction," Ecklie replied.

"That unprocessed evidence could mean the difference between a conviction and an acquittal. You know that as well as I do, Conrad," Grissom replied.

"You took yourself off the case, correct?" Ecklie asked, standing up. Grissom nodded. "I assume that Willows is now in charge of it."

"Catherine can stay impartial enough to get the job done," Grissom replied.

"Still… I've called in some help. An old friend has a CSI who's been looking for somewhere new, and your shift is short anyway. She should be here for her first shift tonight," Ecklie told him.

LINELINELINELINE

Warrick looked up from the newspaper he was reading as a blonde woman walked into the conference room. He didn't recognize her, which was odd considering he knew most of the people who worked in the lab at least by appearances. "Can I help you?" he asked, wondering what she might be there for.

"I'm looking for a Gil Grissom. Any idea where I might find him?" she asked, putting her jacket over the back of a chair.

"His office is down the hall that way," Warrick replied, pointing. "But he isn't in there. He's supposed to be here any minute, giving out assignments, if you can wait. Unless it's something I could help you with."

"Thanks, but I was told to report to Dr. Grissom." she replied, smiling at him. She pulled the chair out and sat down. "I'm Cassie, by the way. Cassie Stokes," she added.

"Warrick Brown. Nice to meet you," he replied. He looked back down at the newspaper and began to read again as they waited for the others to appear. Greg walked into the room and made a beeline for the coffee pot, where he began to brew some of his signature Blue Hawaiian. Catherine appeared shortly after that and walked right past Cassie, sitting down at the far end of the table with a book in one hand. Finally, Grissom walked in with a handful of slips of paper with cases and addresses.

"Where's Nick?" Grissom asked.

"Running late. He said he'd catch you in a minute," Greg replied, not turning away from the coffee maker. Grissom just nodded and glanced down at the assignments in his hand.

"All right. Greg, you're with Nick on a 419 out near Henderson. Warrick and Catherine, I've got two burglaries at two different convenience stores. Probably not connected, but there's always a chance," Grissom replied. He handed out the three slips of paper, and then looked down at the fourth slip still in his hand. He then looked up at the blonde sitting at the table across from Warrick. "Cassie, right? You're with me on a 419 over in Seven Hills." The other two CSIs in the room looked her direction at that point, surprised they hadn't noticed her sitting there.

LINELINELINELINE

Jim Brass listened in silence as the psychiatrist spoke about Natalie Davis. "She's mentally disturbed, that much is certain. But she's definitely culpable for at least the kidnapping and attempted murder charges. She knew exactly what she was doing throughout those crimes," the woman told him. Brass nodded.

"What about the other charges? We have several bodies that have been linked to her," Brass replied. The psychiatrist shook her head.

"I can't be certain about any of them. She can discuss those crimes and be perfectly lucid, but if you bring up the wrong thing she'll get off on a tangent. I don't know for sure what her mental state was at those times," she replied. Brass just nodded.

"As long as she's culpable for that one."

LINELINELINELINE

"How is she?" Cassie asked. She was sitting in the passenger's seat of the Denali as Grissom drove.

"She's in denial. It's the only coping mechanism she has left right now," Grissom replied. He paused for a moment before continuing. "How much do you know?"

"Just what my old boss in Memphis told me. Ecklie's an ass, but his lab is one of the best in the country. I talked to Ecklie for all of five minutes, and I thoroughly agree with that assessment. And all the man did was explain the situation," she replied.

"Ecklie's not exactly the easiest person to deal with. What did he tell you about the case?" Grissom asked. He was curious to know exactly what this new girl had been told.

"This serial killer's pretty screwed up, from what Ecklie told me. He said that she had been leaving miniatures of all the crime scenes for you to find, usually at the scene. She worked in the lab as a janitor or something," Cassie replied. "I don't know many details beyond that. Just that she was playing some kind of sick game with all of you." Grissom just nodded as he pulled up at their crime scene.

"There's a little more to the story. But I'll fill you in on that later. Right now, we have a murder to investigate."

LINELINELINELINE

Sara opened her eyes and smiled at the sound of the chair scraping against the linoleum floor. "If you pick it up a little higher, it doesn't make that noise," she joked.

"But then I wouldn't have gotten to talk to you," Greg joked back, smiling at her. "I didn't really wake you up, did I?"

"No, I needed to wake up anyway. It's going to take me forever to get back on schedule thanks to these stupid painkillers. I sleep almost constantly now," Sara replied. She glanced at the clock on the wall and raised an eyebrow. "You just got off your shift and you came here?"

"I'm not entitled to miss seeing my friend?" Greg asked.

"Most people would be sleeping right now, if they were in your position. Or eating breakfast with Nick and Warrick, like you usually do," Sara pointed out. Then Greg pulled out a bag from a fast food restaurant.

"They're on their way. And I think Catherine's coming after she drops Lindsey off at school. Plus I think Grissom's bringing the new girl," Greg replied. Sara's smile faded when Greg mentioned that. "It wasn't his idea. Ecklie called her in from Memphis. But I think the sheriff's planning on her staying once you're back, too. I think they're going to stop letting anyone go solo on a case."

"We're already short-handed, that's just going to screw things up even more," Sara replied.

"I know, but too much has gone wrong when people have gone solo. They just don't want another CSI to get hurt," Greg replied. Nick and Warrick walked in at that point, ending the conversation there.


End file.
